Using the Linksys WUSB54G (v1 or v4) With Ubuntu Gutsy

As a follow-up to my earlier post on using the Linksys WPC54G v2 with Ubuntu Gutsy, the procedure for using the WUSB54G is quite similar.

First, know that the WUSB54G comes in several versions. You can determine the version by looking on the bottom of the adapter. If you don’t see a version number anywhere, it’s version 1. I have a version 1 and a version 4 adapter, and the instructions for each are similar.

2) Install ndiswrapper using the Synaptic Package Manager (it’ll install it from the Ubuntu Live CD, so make sure your CD is in the drive). You can start the Synaptic Package Manager from the main menubar (System/Administration/Synaptic Package Manager). You need to install two packages: ndiswrapper-common and ndiswrapper-utils-1.9 (you can use the Search button in the Synaptic Package Manager to find these–search on “ndis”). (Note: I’ve seen other instructions on the web for getting this adapter to work, and those instructions called for recompiling ndiswrapper from source code. This may have been needed for earlier versions of Ubuntu or ndiswrapper, but doesn’t appear to be needed for 7.10.)

3) Next, we need a place to put the driver files, so create a folder named “Linksys” (or whatever you want) under your home directory. To do this, click Places/Home Folder from the main menubar, and when the File Browser window appears, right-click somewhere in the window and select “Create Folder” from the popup menu that appears, and then type the desired folder name when the new folder appears.

4) Now we’ll copy the driver files from the Linksys installation CD for your adapter. Stick your Linksys installation CD in the drive. The drivers are found in a folder named \Drivers\WUSB54Gv1 for version 1, or \Drivers\WUSB54Gv4 for version 4. Copy all the files from the appropriate folder on the Cd for your adapter version to your newly-created “Linksys” folder:

For version 1 of the adapter, you’ll copy the following files:

WUSB209x.sys
WUSB20XP.sys
WUSB54G.cat
WUSB54G.inf

For version 4 of the adapter, you’ll need these files:

rt2500usb.inf
rt2500usb.sys
WUSB54GV4.cat

5) Install the drivers using ndiswrapper. For version 1, type

sudo ndiswrapper -i WUSB54G.inf

For version 4, type

sudo ndiswrapper -i rt2500usb.inf

6) Now install ndiswrapper as a module. Type

sudo depmod -a
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper

7) Next we need to prevent the native driver for this device from loading. For version 1, type

sudo modprobe -r p54usb

For version 4, type

sudo modprobe -r rt2500usb

Then edit the /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist file:

sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

and add “blacklist p54usb” (for version 1) or “blacklist rt2500usb” (for version 4) (without the quotes) at the end of the file.

9) Now add an alias to associate your wireless network interface to ndiswrapper in /etc/modprobe.d/ndiswrapper. Type

sudo ndiswrapper -m

10) Set ndiswrapper to load automatically. Edit the /etc/modules file:

sudo gedit /etc/modules

and add “ndiswrapper” (without the quotes) at the end of the file.

11) Reboot. After the reboot completes, you should be able to left-click on the Network icon toward the right side of the main menubar and have it display a list of wireless networks. Click the radio button next to the wireless network you’d like to connect to. You’ll be prompted for the network wireless password. Enter it, and you should soon be connected!

Note for version 2 users: I’ll bet you can look at the instructions for versions 1 and 4 and figure out how to modify them for version 2. Note that the name of the alternate driver that shows up in step 8 is the same as the name of the driver that we blacklisted in step 7. In step 4, copy the files from \Drivers\WUSB54Gv2. In step 5, the name of the .inf file is WUSB54GV2.inf.

If you open up the Network Manager and examine the settings for your wireless adapter now, you’ll see that it’s been set to enable roaming mode. This means that your IP address and will by dynamically assigned by the network it connects to. This is fine for most situations, but if you need to assign a static IP address to your PC, you’ll need to disable roaming mode and manually specify the network settings. My experience is that you will also need to undo step 10 above by removing the “ndiswrapper” line from /etc/modules.

I realize that is a little stuff, I will continue looking for while any body will ask me.

Thanks you very much.

Gengis from Mexico.

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After I was written this report I proved internet by firefox and WOOOLAAA. It done.
there is a problem in the gnome-panel because dictionary lookup and weather report do not work (like the internet is not present). this sound stupid but I always prove the internet with the weather report at the gnome-panel

However, I prove internet by firefox yesterday but no network. I think the KEY is to WAIT several minutes.

I had installed my WUSB54G v4 according to your instruction with ndiswrapper but using static IP on Ubuntu 7.10 (Gutsy) and modified /etc/network/interfaces according to the guide from “HOWTO: Wireless Security – WPA1, WPA2, LEAP, etc.” (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=318539 ). In addition, I had performed the step 10 (which you recommended not to do.)

Currently, my WUSB54G is working but the wireless connection frequently drops.

I’d certainly try removing the entry in /etc/modules and see if that fixes the problem. That was what I needed to do to use a static IP address. I didn’t really look at the instructions in the link you provided, but I didn’t manually edit anything in the /etc/network/interfaces file. Here’s what mine looks like:

I am having the same trouble as Matt. It does recognize it and the only problem is at the end when i click on the network icon. Wireless isn’t an option. When I remove ndiswrapper and then do it again with modprobe, it still does not appear, but it says it is there and that the driver is installed. I know you said you don’t know what else to do, but any help from anyone would be great.

I tried everything described above, but nothing works. The system did acknowledge my wireless adapter, but when I tried to have it pull up some web pages they all came up blank. Sometimes the adapter is acknowledged by the Network Manager and other times it is not. Any assistance would be appreciated. Thanks ahead of time.

The following is what I get from the terminal:
steven@family:~$ $ndiswrapper -l
bash: -l: command not found
steven@family:~$ ndiswrapper -l
rt2500usb : driver installed
device (13B1:000D) present (alternate driver: rt2500usb)
steven@family:~$ iwconfig
lo no wireless extensions.

The first thing I wanted to comment on is the fact that in order to install the two ndiswrapper files off of the CD I first had to go to the ‘edit’ menu in the synaptic package manager and select ‘Add CD-ROM…’ before it would let me install the files. Before that it would just give me an error telling me essentially that I (obviously) am not connected to the internet and can not access the online files. Perhaps it was unusual that I had to do this, perhaps my downloaded cd was accidentally named something different from what the package manager recognized? Anyway if this is a common neccesity you might think about adding it as a step or something.

After I figured that out and once I got the ndiswrapper files ‘ndiswrapper-common’ and ‘ndiswrapper-utils- 1.9’ installed things went quite well until step 8. It returned a response stating: “brian@brian-desktop-linux:~$ ndiswrapper -l
rt2500usb : invalid driver!”

I did notice earlier that the version 4 files on my Linksys CD are not all exactly the same as the files you stated; my files are as follows:
rt2500usb.cat,
rt2500usb.inf, and
rt2500usb.sys
The only one that is different is the .cat file, do you know if my tweaked files are what’s causing the problem? If so do you think my adapter would still work if I used someone elses drivers or if I simply changed the .cat file name to match your directions?

Then again perhaps I just made a simple mistake in the previous steps that is glaringly obvious to you right away, but perhaps that is just being a little too hopeful. ;)

Any advice, help or directions you can give me or refer me would be much appreciated. Thanks a bunch,

Not sure what’s causing your problem. I wouldn’t think it’d be the different files, but maybe you can download the latest driver files from Linksys and try that. Before you do that, open the rt2500usb.inf file with a text editor and make sure that any references to the .cat and .sys files use the correct case for the filenames (since filenames are case-sensitive in linux).

Wow. Thanks for the quick response, I did in fact receive your suggestion the day after you wrote it but simply have not had the time yet to write back. It turns out my adapter is a refurbished version of the WUSB54G ver.4 adapter. (in fact my driver CD for it labels the adapter as the WUSB54G-RM ver. 4.3) This perhaps explains why it has differently named, mixed and matched drivers. If you or anyone else has any experience with the RM version of the adapter (possibly to designate ReMade, ReManufactured or ReModeled?)please let me know any info you’ve got on it, but something tells me I am out of luck on this one. Again, thanks a bunch,

My installation on Windows 98 computer always hangs and says it cannot load the rt2500usb.cat file. I point it to the location of that file by browsing but it cannot find it and says it is looking to do this rt2500usb.cat=rt2500usb.cat